Bicycles have been around a long time. They were one of the first consumer items produced in the "industrial revolution" and greatly improved transportation but mostly for the upper class; at least at first. They were not cheap! Many bicycles produced in England around the turn of the 19th/20th century advertised themselves for "gentlemen". The same class of people who bought Rolls Royce automobiles.

In the USA bicycles were more proletarian. I have seen a photograph of mounted horsemen (cowboys) posing for the camera in front of Judge Roy Bean's "Law West of the Pecos" store-and-courtroom. In the middle is a bicycle.

A few of us on this forum are old enough to see a progression in bicycle design over the past 50 years (or more). A "classic" (old) or "antique" (older) bicycle is, I believe, categorized by two attributes: Its age (obviously) and its type. A mountain bike from the 1980s is clearly classic and possibly antique. A road bike of the same age would be only classic, while an antique road bike would date back into the earlier decades of the 20th century or earlier. Certainly, any bicycle of the 1800s would be antique.

What is remarkable - to me, at least - is that the design of the has remained so consistent. Barring the huge-front-wheel types, most bicycles built in the 1900s are very similar in looks to bicycles of the 2000s. Especially lately with the trend towards "Dutch Bikes" in many metropolitan areas.

I will start things off with a link to a web site Steady Eddie found which has a plethora of classic and antique English and European bicycles (and at least one "racing tricycle") with photos, drawings and even some pricing. The "Online Vintage Bicycle Museum: For the Veteran and Vintage Bicycle Cycle Velo Bike Fahrrad" (http://oldbike.wordpress.com/1-www-oldbike-eu-museum/)

I like to read about the early inventions of bicycling. Cool link. I got a kick out of the 1939 Murray Mercury Pacemaker that had a spotlight in the World's Fair. Since I'm in my 40s, I remember Murray as a US built "affordable" bicycle since that is what the company transformed into.

BrownJones wrote:I didn’t know so much about bike history thanks. I ride bikes and I love it. Well before it was only mode for transportation but not now. But I still feel sometimes those were the golden times.

Brown---

The years are still golden, my friend, it is just that now days you must make time for the cycling part if it...either you carve out a block of time and then just do it---OR---you go very extreme and go car-less..going with out a car is a real challenge, but the rewards are worth it..

I have been medically unable to drive now for nearly one whole year..I also have full-sized Walmart Store that is 1.1 miles away, which very nice, I think....my plans are now to buy a used trike and flat ride the wheels off it...with me riding the trike plus my old dog riding in the old school Cannondale trailer that I have, we should do real well together...

Steady Eddie

"If you buy a stock bike, do something to it that makes it the only one exactly like it in the world"...Grant Petersen

wa_desert_rat wrote:Eddy, so happy to see you post here. Are you able to continue to bicycle? I know you used to have a collection of bikes.

Best regards,Craig

WDR---

Yes, I can still ride..but it is very dangerous for me to do so, as my neurologist has put me on notice that, if I should fall, and conk my head once again, and suffer yet another concussion, well, she might not be able "to put Humpty back together again"....so-- it looks like I will be on an old Columbia trike..now I just need to find one.....

Steady Eddie

"If you buy a stock bike, do something to it that makes it the only one exactly like it in the world"...Grant Petersen

Good read I really enjoyed that. We should do a spotlight on the use of bikes in the war (went back to school to become a military historian) I think that would be pretty awesome to see. I might delve into that a little and see what I can come up with

ledfoot106 wrote:Good read I really enjoyed that. We should do a spotlight on the use of bikes in the war (went back to school to become a military historian) I think that would be pretty awesome to see. I might delve into that a little and see what I can come up with

i haven't seen this mentioned anywhere else, and this looks like a good place to mention it. the wright brothers who invented the airplane had a bicycle shop in dayton ohio before they did airplanes. they used the proceeds to fund their experiments. the technology transfer seems fairly obvious, you need light and strong. steel and gas engines were just coming into their own at the consumer level, it seems in retrospect like a natural confluence. having been to kitty hawk where the museum is, i've seen a couple of wright bicycles, and they look pretty much like a modern single-speed road bike.